Rorschach fighting

[Donny Brook]

The Watchmen character Rorschach (I have read the graphic novel, but let's talk about the movie) is a dangerous HTH fighter.

I'm curious in a general sense, what martial arts Style(s) he might have. And in a more specific sense, how would you model his combat improvisational ability.

[Arcanjo7Sagi]

As far as I remember, Rorschach is self-taught. So, he probably has reasonable levels of Boxing and/or Brawling combined with Wrestling, which he learned in practice during his time as a vigilante. On top of that, he probably has the Improvised Weapons Perks for each skill above. He must also have other complementary combat skills, such as Knife, Shortsword (for improvised crushing weapons), etc.

I'm not sure if he would have a formal style, as he learned a lot on his own. If so, maybe it's Bare-Knuckle Boxing and Combat Wrestling.

[David Johansen]

Skills: Tactics, Brawling, and maybe Wrestling

Techniques: Hit Location Groin, Hit Location Eye, Eye Gouge, Arm Lock, Choaking, maybe Neck Snap

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by David Johansen

Skills: Tactics, Brawling, and maybe Wrestling

Techniques: Hit Location Groin, Hit Location Eye, Eye Gouge, Arm Lock, Choaking, maybe Neck Snap

Does it make sense to take so many techniques? Wouldn't it be cheaper just to buy up the base skill?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

Does it make sense to take so many techniques? Wouldn't it be cheaper just to buy up the base skill?

Some of the Techniques may be for different skills, but yeah, having lots of techniques is typically inefficient. Roughly speaking, investing in any more than 3 mutually-exclusive Techniques on a single skill is a waste of points, and even just having 3 (or even 2) such is arguably inefficient. Note I specifically called out mutually-exclusive Techniques - Techniques that you can "stack" are an exception here (so stuff like Dual Weapon Attack often wouldn't count against that 3-Technique limit).

Alternatively, consider Tech!, which costs [5] per level and has to be specialized per skill; the first level gives a +1 to all Techniques (or if you want higher resolution, +2 to Normal Techniques and +1 to Hard ones) for that skill, and each level thereafter gives a further +2. Give Rorschach Brawling Tech! 3 [15] and Wrestling Tech! 3 [15] and he can eat up to a -5 worth of Technique penalties on each skill. It's definitely not RAW, however - I think the best you can do under RAW is something like some of the "Slayer Training" power-ups for DF, which are [6] for +1 to all Targeted Attacks and [3] per additional +1 (priced as a Technique at triple cost, as standard for Wildcard Techniques), but I think still requires you to specialize by skill and is thus typically a horrible deal.

[Farmer]

Multiple techniques may be inefficient (well, they are), but it adds character to a character. They're not just better at the entirety of the skill, only selected components, and they stand out because their skill in those things is truly above most others.

Just as it's generally more efficient to take higher stats, it's not always desirable from a character perspective. If someone was self taught, it's quite feasible that they're better at those techniques because they used them a lot and practiced them, rather than spending time "efficiently" learning a broader base skill set.

IOW, a character with character can be more appealing and fun and interesting than one built with efficiency (min/maxed).

[Plane]

If it ever reaches a point w/ techniques where you've spent so many points on techniques that leveling up the base skill would be more economic it doesn't seem like a huge problem to allow that to just shift to leveling up the base skill.

I wouldn't apply that to leveling up DX instead of a combat skill though since those are too different.

[David Johansen]

Originally Posted by sjmdw45

Does it make sense to take so many techniques? Wouldn't it be cheaper just to buy up the base skill?

Perhaps, but I wanted to emphasize that he fights dirty.

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by David Johansen

Perhaps, but I wanted to emphasize that he fights dirty.

Oh, I see now. It didn't strike me at first that eye strikes, choking, etc. are "dirty", although I suppose police would take a dim view of such tactics.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

The Watchmen character Rorschach (I have read the graphic novel, but let's talk about the movie) is a dangerous HTH fighter.

Sky high Brawling skill, Improvised Weapons technique, HPT, Hard to Subdue and lots of extra HP. Possibly Weapon Master (Improvised Weapons) and Signature Move (Dirty Tricks).